COVID19 Update - Day 233

US Tests: 126,972,115*

US Cases: 8,890,551*

US Deaths: 220,423*

Worldwide Cases: 44,906,565*

Worldwide Deaths: 1,179,267*

* - Numbers are a lower bound.  True numbers are being suppressed by the Trump administration

While the Superspreader-In-Chief continues to hold rallies, thus literally doing all in his power to personally exacerbate the pandemic, we're starting to see truly catastrophic surges of the #TrumpVirus in various parts of the country.

Much of the midwest is a disaster area, with the Dakotas leading the nation in new infections per capita (Sturgis, anyone?).  And some states are reaching the breaking point:

With new coronavirus cases shattering records on a daily basis, Utah’s hospitals are expected to begin rationing care in a week or two.

That’s the prediction of Greg Bell, president of the Utah Hospital Association, who said administrators of the state’s hospitals confronted Gov. Gary Herbert on Thursday with a grim list: Criteria they propose doctors should use if they are forced to decide which patients can stay in overcrowded intensive care units.

Under the criteria, which would require Herbert’s approval, patients who are getting worse despite receiving intensive care would be moved out first. In the event that two patients' conditions are equal, the young get priority over the old, since older patients are more likely to die.

Just so we're clear on this --- pretty soon, doctors in Utah will have to decide to let some patients die, because hospitals will be overrun with #TrumpVirus patients.

The situation isn't as bad in Wisconsin, but it's still pretty dire:

Wisconsin will open a field hospital for COVID-19 patients Wednesday on the grounds of the Wisconsin State Fair to help hospitals around the state that are strained by increased hospitalizations from the disease. The move comes more than five months after Gov. Tony Evers laid the groundwork for such a facility in late April by issuing an emergency order.

Last week, when the opening of the alternate care facility at State Fair Park in West Allis was announced, officials said up to 50 patients could initially be transferred to the site, which is designed for patients who need limited care as they recover from COVID-19 but still aren’t well enough to go home. As the site scales up, it could eventually treat up to 530 patients. 

"It’s an alternative to a hospital setting. So a patient would be transferred, potentially from a Fox Valley hospital, down to the alternate care facility," said Deb Standridge, CEO of the Wisconsin State Fair Park Alternative Care Facility, during an Oct. 7 media briefing.

Standridge said teenage as well as elderly patients who have been hospitalized for two days or less will recover at the facility, which has supplemental oxygen, IV treatments and other medications.

The alternative care facility is designed to help hospitals around the state manage a record number of patients at a time when many facilities also have staff shortages due to COVID-19 exposure or illness.

At Bellin Health in northeastern Wisconsin, space was so tight that some patients were treated in hallways, while the health system was also trying to shore up its workforce.

This is just a sample of what we'll be seeing for the rest of 2020.  Think of this, when you see that vile asshole staging another one of his super spreader, ego-boosting, fascist rallies.